Off-set Your Jobsite Storage Costs
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What do you think?
If you take a look around most construction sites these days, the mobile offices and storage containers are pretty utilitarian - plain white or gray and not very eye-catching. While they do the job they were intended for, these large structures are typically written off as an operational expense that help prevent theft of tools and supplies while providing a base of operations for your crew. A recent trend in this space is to use your jobsite office or storage as a billboard to promote your business. This can make sense for a lot of different reasons. One of the mainstays of marketing is repetition, repetition, repetition. The more times people see your message, the more likely they are to remember your company and product when they need it. This "top-of-mind awareness" is why companies buy billboard advertising and the repetitive traffic that sees the message on that billboard can cost thousands of dollars per month. The side of your mobile office or storage container is roughly equivalent to a billboard so why shouldn't you save yourself thousands of dollars by customizing it with your own billboard or charge someone else for that billboard? If you're a small contractor, this could be an excellent way to get some high-profile advertising while you are on that jobsite downtown which could lead to additional contracts. If you've got all the business you can handle, you could charge the company that you are working for several hundred extra per month to have your storage container on their jobsite. As an example, you're working on a new high-dollar hotel near a major intersection in an urban area, talk to the manager of the new hotel and offer to place a "Coming Soon!" sign on your container or office. Chances are you'll be able to cover the entire cost of your mobile office with this new revenue stream. Of course this is all dependent on location and there are an infinite number of creative ways to make this work. 
A customized, Pac-Van 20' portable storage container. One of the other great factors with this is differentiation. Right now, this concept is fairly new so there aren't many contractors doing it. This is a great selling point for those jobs where the contracting company is going to be interested in using your mobile office as a billboard. This feature will make you stand out and could potentially skew a bid in your favor if no one else is offering this service. Just check the price for a billboard near the jobsite and be creative with the "value" that your billboard ads to the bid. Maybe you include the billboard as an option and that will cause the contracting company to do their own research into an option they hadn't even considered before. One issue that you'll want to keep in mind that can complicate this concept is jobsite staging. Your unit may not be located in the same place for the entire job, so that needs to be communicated to the company potentially paying you for their billboard. This could also be your justification for keeping your container in a premium location on a crowded jobsite. Using your mobile office or storage container as a premium service does add a layer of complication to your interaction with the contracting company, but it also makes you a more valuable business partner. If you provide a positive experience, they are more likely to seek your services in the future. Be aware that some companies only lease these containers so this type of customization may not be possible under your lease terms. Make sure you are working with a vendor like Pac-Van that can offer flexible lease and purchase terms to facilitate this project. When it comes down to it, your primary concern for your storage container or mobile office is that it will protect your employees, tools, and work materials. But if you can get it to pay for itself and then some - a way to promote your business, differentiate yourself from your competitors, and possibly add a few points to your profit margin; Next time, you'll see more than a plain, old gray container.
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